And we're off

Spent Four days in London. We took the Euro Tunnel. 

In our case, you basically drive your bus into these cargo looking containers which are actually mounted on railroad tracks. They then close you in and a train pulls all of the cargo trailers. Pretty crazy stuff. It was an incredibly tight fit for the bus. I'm talking like 6 inches on each side from what I could see. 

                                        

                                       

The Channel Tunnel is the longest undersea tunnel in the world: its section under the sea is 38km long. It is actually composed of three tunnels, each 50km long, bored at an average 40m below the sea bed. They link Folkestone (Kent) to Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais).

It's a 3 hour drive to get from Caen to Pas-de-Calais. The crossing itself once you get going takes 35 minutes. 

This is a video my co worker took. It's fairly long, but really shows from start to finish how this thing works. 

Our Hotel

                                         

Our hotel was in the "Paddington" neighborhood. Right smack near Hyde Park, a train station and lots to do. Great spot compared to two years ago. With 122 kids (5th graders, 10 years old) we actually had two different hotels right down the street from one another. 

I took this shot with the panaramic feature which makes it look bigger than it was. High ceilings though. A look out the window made me feel like I was in the Industrial Revolution, a dark and dingy little courtyard overlooking brick walls. You could hear things rattle every time the train or subway went by. Don't know if the subway ran directly under the hotel or not, but it must have been close.

This was the door right after our room door. There were doors everywhere. Narrow staircases, 4 floors, no elevator. Old school. Would have loved to know what this was back in the day originally. I imagine a boarding house with rooms to let?? 

Couldn't resist....my roommate's soap. Too cute. 

This and that....

 My supermarket finds: Poptarts (unexpected surprise), tea, a boatload of crumpets, more tea, jams, crackers and cookies. Good stuff! Oh, and of course I bought like 6 blocks of different cheddar cheeses.

My collegues and I out for a drink at the pub. 

I'm nestled behind a huge glass of hard cider towards the center.

Goofing off in a souvenir shop with some horrific sunglasses.

This guy happened to overhear the kids and then started preaching "Jesus loves us" in French. Every city has one of these....

This guy must have been a doorman or something at a hotel. 

Mailbox...

We've known this guy Johnathan for years now. Stephane used to work with him. He's English and also happens to be friends with one of the teachers, so he's come with us for the past 2 trips. It's always fun to have someone with us that actually knows London. 

                                                                        London traffic

Natural History Museum

 Our first visit the day we arrived on Tuesday late afternoon. The Natural History Museum. The building itself was beautiful and the small part of the collections we had time to see were great as well, but my heart will always be true to the Milwaukee Public Museum:)

Worth noting...this museum is free to the public every day of the year. Even for tourists.